a99kitten's Musings

At SDCC, I went by the same booth Thursday and Friday to check out a piece of art. It was the canvas original of “Bad Girls” by Mimi Yoon. In person, this piece was amazing. The colors truly pop out and grab you. It was also almost as tall as me framed on the wall – great, great piece. It was also $15,000 and there was no way I was spending that kind of money on something withOUT Chewbacca in it ;)

Bad Girls original

Besides my Star Wars and Indy collecting, I have always loved collecting the female characters in DC and Marvel. This is a lot easier now than it was when I was younger. I still have carded action figures safe and sound from when I was a kid but they didn’t make too many of them which was pretty silly if you think about it. Pretty (and usually big boobed) super heroes sold to boys? Seems like an easy sell. Although now it’s hard to find the really awesome pieces because those same boys grew up, made some money and now buy them all up :) I think Slave Leia changed it all honestly.

I loved (well…still love) Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Batgirl, etc, etc growing up. Not because I’m some feminist girl who wanted to feel empowered/not need men/blah blah baloney though. I mostly loved that they kicked serious ass while they were pretty and wearing cool outfits with high-heeled boots. I’m such a girl :)

They had an artist proof on canvas (and paper it turned out) at a much more reasonable price plus smaller. Edition size was 100 so still a small run (paper was 250.) But SDCC had just started and I wanted to see if any new Star Wars art caught my eye before spending any money (if I spent any on art at all.) The guy at the booth was nice, and showed me some pieces they had that they weren’t allowed to display (very nice), but he was a bit pushy and kept using salesmen mumbo-jumbo “what can we do to get this done?”, “let’s schedule a sit down and talk about this”, etc. And I hate to be sold to. So I eventually got out of there and said I’d think about it.

I walked by again on Friday and looked at the original again. Still gorgeous. But my proof was gone! Sold. Darn. I guess it was not meant to be. But I was sad. I did really like the piece. Walked by again Saturday and the original was gone! (Turns out it was sold by the Chuck Jones Gallery as I learned on Sunday…)

On Sunday I decided to go to the Chuck Jones Gallery. I always stop by there when in town for SDCC. I walk in the front door and there is my Bad Girls artist proof on canvas all framed and pretty! And there is the artist! And she is signing dedication cards for the canvas if you buy one. Oh man. An employee walks up and asks me if I know this piece and gave him the above story. He smiled and and said I guess this is fate then. Yep. He knew I was sold.

Artist Mimi Yoon (and me!) with my Bad Girls :)

Mimi Yoon writing my dedication card for Bad Girls

My dedication card!

They shipped it up to me and the girls arrived all safe and sound. And I just put them up on the wall. LOVE IT. The colors pop and they catch the light as you walk by. #24 of 100. Absolutely ZERO buyer’s remorse. It was, after all, Fate :)

On the wall!

The sadness and tragedy of what happened last night/early this morning is undeniable. Those people were excited all day about seeing a fun movie, maybe even dressed up in costume, hung out for hours in line joking around and making “line friends” and going over the details of the last 2 Batman movies or the comics. Everyone was excited and happy. And certainly not looking over their shoulder for a complete psycho.

The news stories I’ve read with witness accounts are scary. I cannot even imagine how frightening that was for people.

I love comics. And I love movies. I’ve been to midnight showings for the Star Wars prequels, Indiana Jones IV and the Twilight movies. It’s an event and is super fun. At no time did I ever, ever worry about my safety. And I’m sure the same could be said for everyone else there with me. Sadly, that might not be true anymore. Will it stop me from going to midnight showings? No. But it will make me think about. And that’s just wrong.

Comic books and movies were made for the purpose of escaping. Escaping into a different world. Fantasy. Escape your hectic life for a couple hours, maybe your kids, certainly the world. But some sociopath decided to bring his insanity to others. And to wreck that escape. Solely because he is sociopath.

I’d be surprised if we didn’t get some parade of how he was abused as a child, bullied in school, hated by others, blah blah blah. Doesn’t matter. Even if hundreds of people treated him like crap all of his life – they didn’t kill him. And I’m betting none of them were in that theater. But in today’s society, you are almost never responsible for your own actions. Someone will find some disorder that applies. And justify your actions for you. And place at least some of the blame elsewhere. Well guess what? No. He is simply a psycho.

And guess what else? He would have been able to get weapons legally OR illegally if he really wanted. So I don’t want to hear that strict gun control laws would have prevented this. It would not have. Criminals will always be able to get weapons. Always. So this political volleyball will undoubtedly be bounced around. And that is stupid. But stupidity never stopped politicians from doing anything.

And reading stories how this is related to Batman and the comic book universe? I can’t even respond to something so stupid.

Be sad for the people that lost their lives and were injured. Be sad for their families. And be a little sad for yet another pocket of fun and innocence being ruined for us all.